Ben-Avigdor

Born Avraham Leib Shalkovich in Zaludok (near Vilna), Ben-Avigdor took on his Hebrew pen name as a marker of newfound Zionist commitments in 1891. Shalkovich studied in Lithuanian yeshivas before embracing the Haskalah and, in quick succession, Zionism and secular Hebraism. Marrying Tsipora Blumgarten, the Yiddish poet Yehoash’s sister, Ben-Avigdor moved to Warsaw in 1891 to work for the Zionist-Hebraist Bnei Moshe organization. He soon emerged as a vocal advocate for widening the scope of the young Hebrew literature beyond a narrow concern with Haskalah questions of Jewish identity and cultural reform and for working to widen its readership. As a writer of fiction, he helped pioneer realist themes and tones in Hebrew literature. More lastingly, he emerged as an innovative editor and even more so an innovative publisher. His Sifrei Agorah (Books for a Penny) chapbook series demonstrated that cheap, accessible versions of the new Hebrew literature could find a wide readership. He founded and managed Ahiasaf, a Hebraist-Zionist press that published essential works of the young post-Haskalah Hebrew culture like the literary and publicistic annual Luaḥ Aḥi’asaf. And in 1896, he founded the Tushiyah publishing house, which for many years served to put Hebrew literary publishing on a sounder economic footing, served as a point of entry for many new literary talents, and placed unprecedented emphasis on genres that would expand the scope of Hebrew literature, including extensive translations from European literatures and original and translated literature for children. As a publisher, Ben-Avigdor also made substantial contributions to the development of Yiddish literature and journalism.